The Blues brothers
Jake Blues is released from prison after serving three years for armed robbery. Jake is picked up by his brother Elwood in the Bluesmobile, a battered former Mount Prospect police cruiser. The brothers visit their childhood home in Calumet City, Illinois, a Catholic orphanage, and learn from Sister Mary Stigmata that it is facing imminent closure unless $5,000 in property taxes are collected; when they offer to produce the money quickly, Sister Mary becomes livid, chasing them from her office as she announces she will not accept stolen money, and they cannot return until they have redeemed themselves. The brothers visit an evangelical church service where Jake has a revelation: they can legitimately raise the funds by reforming their R&B band. Elwood runs a red light, and is pulled over by two Illinois State Police troopers, who learn of his suspended license. When they attempt to arrest him, he speeds off, escaping through the Dixie Square Mall. As the brothers arrive at the flophouse where Elwood lives, a mystery woman launches a rocket attack, but it leaves them unharmed. The next morning, she detonates a bomb that demolishes the building, which again fails to injure the brothers, but saves them from being arrested. Jake and Elwood begin tracking down members of the band. Trombonist Tom "Bones" Malone and the rhythm section (Hall, Cropper, Dunn, and Dunne) are playing in a Holiday Inn lounge, and are persuaded to rejoin. Trumpeter Alan Rubin, now maître d’ at the fancy Chez Paul restaurant, is harder to sway, but Jake and Elwood engage in rude behavior and promise to continue until he agrees. On the way to meet saxophonist "Blue Lou" Marini and guitarist Matt "Guitar" Murphy, the brothers drive through a rally of Illinois Nazis, adding another enemy to their growing list. Marini and Murphy are at the soul food restaurant on Maxwell Street which Murphy owns with his wife. Against her advice, the two musicians leave and rejoin the band. The reunited group get instruments and equipment from Ray's Music Exchange (with the owner accepting an IOU). Jake is unable to book a gig in advance, but the band stumbles into a gig at a country bar. After a rocky start, the band wins over the crowd. At the end of the evening, their bar tab is greater than their pay, and they are confronted by the band that was actually meant to play, the Good Ole Boys. The brothers blackmail their old booking agent Maury Sline into securing a gig for them at the Palace Hotel Ballroom, located north of Chicago. After driving around promoting the concert, the Bluesmobile runs out of gas, making Jake and Elwood late for the show. The ballroom is packed, and the crowd is joined by the Good Ole Boys and scores of police. Jake and Elwood sneak into the venue and perform a set. A record company executive offers them a cash advance on a recording contract, more than enough to pay off the orphanage's taxes and Ray's IOU, and tells the brothers how to slip out unnoticed. As the brothers escape via a service tunnel, they are confronted by the mystery woman, who is revealed as Jake's former fiancée whom he had ditched at the altar. She fires a rifle at them, but Jake charms her, allowing them to escape. They head back to Chicago with dozens of police cars and the Good Ole Boys in pursuit. Jake and Elwood eventually elude them all, leaving wrecked police cars in their wake. After an escape from the Illinois Nazis, they arrive at the Richard J. Daley Center, where the Bluesmobile falls to pieces. They rush into the Chicago City Hall building, followed by hundreds of police, state troopers, firefighters, and National Guardsmen. Finding the office of the Cook County Assessor, the brothers pay the tax bill. Just as their receipt is stamped, they are arrested by a crowd of officers. Jake, Elwood, and the rest of the band are sent to prison where they play "Jailhouse Rock" for fellow inmates.